List of Stranger Things characters
This is a list of characters from the American science fiction horror television series Stranger Things, created by the Duffer Brothers.
The series is set in the 1980s and follows a group of children in the town of Hawkins, Indiana, as they confront supernatural forces tied to the disappearance of a young boy named Will Byers. Each season advances chronologically from 1983 to 1987, depicting the group’s maturation while they face escalating threats connected to an alternate dimension. The first season premiered on Netflix on July 15, 2016, followed by the second on October 27, 2017, and the third on July 4, 2019. The fourth season was released in two volumes in May and July 2022. The fifth and final season was released in three segments between November and December 2025.
The ensemble cast includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Cara Buono, and Matthew Modine. Noah Schnapp and Joe Keery recurred in the first season before being promoted to the main cast for the second, with Sadie Sink, Dacre Montgomery, Sean Astin, and Paul Reiser also joining. Maya Hawke joined the main cast in the third season while Priah Ferguson was promoted. Brett Gelman recurred in the second and third seasons before being promoted to the main cast in the fourth. Jamie Campbell Bower recurred in the fourth season before being promoted to the main cast in the fifth. Linda Hamilton and Nell Fisher joined the main cast for the fifth season.
This list includes the series' main cast, all guest stars deemed to have had recurring roles throughout the series, and any other guest who is otherwise notable.
Overview
Main cast
Also starring
Recurring cast
Main characters
Joyce Byers
Portrayed by Winona Ryder, Joyce Byers is the mother of Jonathan and Will and is divorced from their father Lonnie. Joyce is a very caring and strong-willed woman who works as a retail clerk at Melvald's General Store in downtown Hawkins. She was born and raised in Hawkins and she attended Hawkins High School with Jim Hopper and Bob Newby.In season one, Joyce refuses to believe Will is dead after he mysteriously disappears, interpreting paranormal events as proof he is alive and pushing Hopper to continue the investigation. She learns Hawkins Lab opened a gate to the Upside Down and helps Hopper rescue Will from there.
In season two, Joyce focuses on Will’s recovery and plays a central role in freeing him from possession by the Mind Flayer. She dates Bob during this time, only for him to die in a Demogorgon attack at Hawkins Lab.
In season three, Joyce, grieving Bob, uncovers a Russian operation beneath Starcourt Mall while Hopper begins pursuing her romantically. She helps infiltrate the lab and ultimately shuts down the machine opening the gate to the Upside Down, an act that leaves Hopper presumed dead. Joyce then takes in Eleven and moves the Byers family to California.
In season four, Joyce learns Hopper is alive and, with Murray, travels to the Soviet Union to rescue him from a prison camp. She reunites with Hopper after helping him escape, and the two affirm their romantic feelings for one another before returning to Hawkins, where Vecna’s actions have torn open rifts to the Upside Down.
In season five, Joyce aids Hopper’s covert missions into the Upside Down and helps train Eleven while protecting Will, whose link to Vecna resurfaces. She later aids the group's final efforts against Vecna and delivers the killing blow after his defeat. About 18 months later, Joyce accepts Hopper’s proposal, and with her children grown, plans to move with him to Montauk, New York.
Jim Hopper
Portrayed by David Harbour, James "Jim" Hopper Jr., nicknamed "Hop," is the Hawkins chief of police. Hopper has lived in Hawkins nearly all his life, having attended high school with Joyce and Bob. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Hopper divorced after his young daughter, Sarah, died of cancer linked to his work with Agent Orange during the war, which caused him to lapse into alcoholism. Eventually, he grows to be more responsible, saving Will from the Upside Down as well as taking Eleven in as his adopted daughter.In season 2, Hopper continues sheltering Eleven without telling anyone else, including Mike Wheeler. He soon investigates pumpkins that were mysteriously rotting and eventually discovers vines that travel underneath Hawkins but he is trapped there but soon rescued. When he was at Hawkins Lab when the demodogs were invading, Hopper attempts to rescue everyone. When he was at the Byers house, Eleven and Hopper reunite and together, they close the gate underneath the Hawkins Lab, essentially cutting off the Mind Flayer from the world.
In season three, Hopper attempts to control Mike and Eleven’s relationship while pursuing Joyce romantically, and becomes involved in investigating Russian activity beneath Starcourt Mall. He helps uncover a Soviet machine opening a gate to the Upside Down and is presumed dead.
In season four, Hopper is revealed to have survived and is imprisoned in a Soviet labor camp in Kamchatka. After a failed escape attempt and recapture, he is reunited with Joyce and Murray, who travel to the Soviet Union to rescue him, and he and Joyce affirm their feelings for each other. Hopper survives a Demogorgon attack and helps destroy other Demogorgons at the prison to weaken Vecna’s influence. He then returns to Hawkins and reunites with Eleven as rifts to the Upside Down begin to spread.
In season five, with Hawkins under military quarantine, Hopper carries out covert reconnaissance missions into the Upside Down and trains Eleven while she is pursued by the military. Stranded in the Upside Down during a mission, he works with Eleven to infiltrate the military's research facility there, where they find and rescue Kali and enlist her aid in freeing kidnapped children trapped in Vecna’s mind. After Vecna’s defeat and the collapse of the Upside Down, Eleven remains behind against Hopper’s wishes, presumably perishing along with the Upside Down. 18 months later, Hopper proposes to Joyce, and the two plan to move to Montauk, New York, where he has accepted a position as chief of police.
Mike Wheeler
Portrayed by Finn Wolfhard, Michael "Mike" Wheeler is the son of Karen and Ted, younger brother of Nancy and older brother of Holly, and is friends with Lucas, Dustin, and Will. Mike is an intelligent and conscientious student who is committed to Lucas, Dustin, and Will. In their Dungeons & Dragons party, Mike is their Paladin and usually plays the role of Dungeon Master.In season one, Mike befriends Eleven after she escapes Hawkins Lab and shelters her while helping search for Will. Acting as the group’s leader, Mike believes Eleven’s claims about the Upside Down, protects her from government agents, and helps her locate Will. He forms a close bond with Eleven and develops romantic feelings for her, before she disappears after defeating a Demogorgon in Hawkins Middle School.
In season two, Mike struggles with Eleven’s absence, calling out to her nightly and becoming withdrawn and irritable. He supports Will as Will begins suffering from Upside Down-related episodes and helps the group determine that the gate at Hawkins Lab must be closed. When Eleven returns, Mike is relieved but angry at Hopper for hiding her. Before she leaves to seal the gate, Mike tells her he cannot lose her again, and they attend the Snow Ball together afterward.
In season three, Mike and Eleven begin dating, but Hopper forces them apart, leading to conflict and a brief breakup. Mike reconciles with Eleven during the Mind Flayer's return to Hawkins, expressing concern over the toll her powers take, and struggles to tell her he loves her. After the Battle of Starcourt, Eleven moves away with the Byers family, telling Mike she loves him before leaving.
In season four, Mike joins the Dungeons & Dragons-themed Hellfire Club at school while maintaining a long-distance relationship with Eleven. Visiting her in California, he discovers she has been hiding severe bullying, and is separated from her again after she is arrested for assaulting her bully and subsequently taken by Dr. Owens. Mike escapes a military attack with Will, Argyle, and Jonathan, tracks Eleven to Nevada with the help of Dustin's ex-girlfriend Suzie, and aids her psychic confrontation with Vecna by professing his love to her, giving her the strength to fight back and save Max. The group then returns to Hawkins, finding it torn apart by rifts to the Upside Down.
In season five, with Hawkins under military quarantine, Mike helps coordinate Hopper's covert missions into the Upside Down. After Vecna kidnaps his sister Holly, Mike infiltrates a military base with his friends to rescue targeted children and is saved from a Demogorgon attack by Will, who discovers he has psychic powers linked to Vecna. Upon learning of Vecna's plans to merge Earth with the Abyss, Mike joins the final battle in which Vecna and the Mind Flayer are destroyed. Believing Eleven to be dead when the Upside Down collapses, a grieving Mike nearly skips his graduation before Hopper convinces him to attend. He then plays a final game of Dungeons & Dragons with his friends, telling them that he chooses to believe Eleven is still alive.
Eleven
Portrayed by Millie Bobby Brown, Eleven is a telekinetic girl. She later becomes Jim Hopper's adoptive daughter and Mike's girlfriend.Born to Terry Ives and originally named Jane Ives, Eleven was abducted at birth by Dr. Martin Brenner and raised at Hawkins National Laboratory, where her telekinetic abilities were developed alongside other gifted children. In 1979, she was manipulated by Henry Creel, who murdered the lab staff before Eleven defeated him and banished him to the Abyss, where he later became Vecna. The event left Eleven in a coma, resetting much of her memory and abilities. Eleven was then used as a test subject in Brenner's experiments to restore her powers, which Brenner used to search for Henry and to spy on the Soviets for the U.S. government; during one of the experiments, Eleven inadvertently made contact with a Demogorgon, creating a gateway from the Abyss to Earth known as the Upside Down and spawning a portal to the Upside Down in Hawkins Lab.
In season one, after escaping the lab in 1983, Eleven befriends Mike, Dustin, and Lucas and helps them locate Will Byers while evading Hawkins Lab agents. She kills a Demogorgon and is transported to the Upside Down.
In season two, she escapes the Upside Down and is taken in by Jim Hopper, who eventually adopts her. In 1984, she briefly leaves Hawkins to learn about her past and meets Terry Ives, her biological mother, Becky Ives, and eventually Kali before returning to close the gate to the Upside Down.
In season three, in 1985, Eleven begins dating Mike and helps defeat the Mind Flayer at Starcourt Mall, but loses her powers, and believes Hopper has died, prompting her move to California with the Byers family.
In season four, in 1986, Eleven endures bullying at Lenora Hills High School and is arrested after retaliating against her tormentor Angela. Dr. Owens takes her to a Nevada research facility, where Brenner and Dr. Owens helps her recover her powers by forcing her to relive suppressed memories of Hawkins Lab via a sensory deprivation chamber. After the facility is attacked by the U.S. Army and Brenner is killed, Eleven reunites with her friends and uses her restored abilities to confront Vecna, saving and resurrecting Max. She returns to Hawkins to find the town fractured by rifts to the Upside Down.
In season five, in 1987, with Hawkins under military quarantine, Eleven goes into hiding and later follows Hopper into the Upside Down after Vecna kidnaps several children. She rescues Kali from a military base, learns the origin of their powers, and enters Vecna’s mind to free the captives. After Vecna’s defeat, Eleven remains behind as the Upside Down collapses to prevent her abilities from being exploited. Her fate is left ambiguous, with Mike telling his friends he believes she survived and began a new life elsewhere.